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Food is fashion, as everyone who has ever tried to book a table at a new restaurant—or signed up for one of the city’s underground markets or private dinner clubs—already knows. So it was little surprising to see the latest model cars lined up around the block for last week’s grand unveiling of the new Loblaws Forest Hill—a sleek, black-and-white tiled 66,000 square-foot version of everyone’s dream industrial kitchen—complete with soft lighting, steel and walnut millwork, and an in-house sushi chef serving up an eight-foot sushi roll.

Ever since the late visionary Dave Nichol introduced President’s Choice back in the ‘80s, Loblaws has been a driving force behind our local foodie culture. Part of the impact was the unique product the chain had the smarts to expose us to just as our tastebuds were becoming more global (and where would we be now without Decadent cookies and Memories Of...). But another key element was Loblaw’s now-trademark design darling: the Watt Group’s bold use of black Helvetica type in its No Name products; the European market style celebration of food in the chain’s Marchetta era.

This latest iteration of Loblaw’s style is developed by Landini Associates for the Maple Leaf Gardens store, now being rolled out in-house for a series of “Inspired” stores like the one in Forest Hill; which by year’s end will total 14 across the country. The mood is updated from rustic market to soft industrial. The first bold move, impossible not to notice the instant you enter the store, is a bright orange linoleum floor that has been custom-coloured to match the company’s corporate logo.

“When we first put it in at the Maple Leaf gardens store and it was literally glowing from outside on the street, I thought, ‘what have we done?’, says Al Burke, Loblaw’s Senior VP of Construction and store development. “But as soon as everything else was in and you see the way it bounces the light back up and warms up the atmosphere, it starts to make sense.”

Indeed, the lighting has been updated, from the blasting overhead fluorescents typical of the supermarket experience, to softer—and more energy-efficient—LEDs that are hung lower (a good eight feet nearer the products on display) and provide a more targeted and warmer light.

“The idea is to make the food itself the hero,” says Burke, who points out, in the store’s zippy new produce section, raised “hero” walls displaying hot categories such as a mushrooms and peppers, which do indeed entice with an enhanced warmth. And one that is given a slick backdrop of glossy subway tiled walls, cozied up with woods and punctuated with fetching signage. The bakery sign looks like a vintage find; the deli’s is poured concrete, and the clear new oversized signage on the tiles (in Universe Bold Condense) was inspired by the original fonts at the old Maple Leaf Gardens.

Just like at a department store, there are now designer “store-within-stores” of chic items like tea (courtesy of the Tea Emporium), sushi (via T&T) and artisanal bread (of the ACE variety), all displaying the latest for the season like glitter skirts at The Gap. Prepared foods (a “hot category’) are given a new priority and presence in near-invisible glass cases designed to meet our new exacting health standards, which, according to Burke, “have changed 100 percent in the last 10 years. There is no way we could display things in the open like they do in Europe or even in the States.”

I’m not crazy about the football field-length walls of refrigerator doors concealing everything from milk to kosher hummus, but of course they are energy saving so we aren’t allowed to complain.

A truly gorgeous steel and brass cheese cooler displays the latest fromage. Another, in the butcher’s shop, houses ageing meat. “You can buy a loin, tag it and watch it as it ages,” says Burke. A vibrant array of cupcakes pose like celebrities on a “cupcake wall” as a woman carves hunks of chocolate into a statuette for passersby. The open bakery is making Montreal style bagels fresh out of the oven. Every time a batch is ready, the baker rings a bell. “We want this to be an interactive experience,” says District Manager Marcello Piane, “A little bit of food theatre.”

Judging from the shoppers eagerly sampling hand-cut jamon and fresh-squeezed kale juice, this theatre is already a hot ticket.

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